Cities Skylines Guide – Electricity and the best power plants?

Introduction

Cities Skylines offers different methods to produce electricity. At the start of the game you will only have access to the Wind Turbine and Coal Power Plant. The further you progress the more you unlock! You can construct water based  Wind Turbine’s, Oil power plants, Solar Power plants and even nuclear power plants.  How does it work and which should you choose?

First let’s do a quick recap of the Power lines before I will attempt to calculate the “best” power plant!

Power lines

Power lines can be a bit confusing at first. Basically all buildings emit a blue power zone. Buildings close to each other will create a single zone. Power lines will need to be constructed to connect different zones together. Let’s take a look:

This power line is not connected.

In this example the power line is not correctly placed for two reasons

• The yellow sign shows it is not connected to a zone (meaning you have to place it INSIDE the other blue zone)
• The power line is not needed because the houses already joined the same power zone as the wind turbine

Instead power lines should be constructed like this:

Power lines are connecting because each end is placed inside the different zones.

The best power plants in Cities Skylines

Overview table

	Cost	price	budget	power 100%	investment per MW	pollution
Wind Turbine	6000	10	80	8	750	0
Advanced Wind turbine	12000	10	200	20	600	0
Coal Power Plant	19000	14	560	40	475	50
Oil Power Plant	15000	16	1920	120	125	35
Solar Power	80000	7,5	1200	160	500	0
Nuclear Power Plant	200000	12,5	8000	640	312,5	0
Hydro Power Plant	variable	variable	3200	variable	variable	0

Construction cost and upkeep:

Cities Skylines offers plenty of diversity in terms of construction cost and upkeep.

Wind Turbines are cheap to construct and have extremely little upkeep. At the same time the Oil Power plant is relatively cheap to construct but has insane upkeep. Solar and Nuclear power are so expensive that they truly endgame.

Costs per MWh

But what about efficiency? In the end efficiency is about the upkeep cost ratio. Let’s take a look

If we look at cost per MW then we can draw the following conclusions

• Solar Power is a clear winner. It only costs €7.5 per MW and can be placed anywhere on the map.
• Wind Turbines are very good (as long as you have proper wind levels).
• Only resort to Coal Power Plant when you do not have access to better buildings
• Oil Power is something you should NEVER construct
• Nuclear Power only makes sense when you are in serious need of space 

Exceptions

Coal power plants

Coal Power plants burn actual coal in order to function. When constructed they will come with 9 week worth of coal.

A new Coal Power Plant will have 9 weeks worth of coal stored.

When their coal reserves drop they will order in coal from “off map”. Meaning that a truck full of coal will have to drive to the coal plant and deliver it’s coal. So it is very important to have a working road connection that is linked to the outside highway. An endgame alternative would be to use a Train Cargo Station to import coal. However by that time you will have access to the superior Solar Power plant.

A Truck is delivering a fresh load of coal so the Coal Power Plant can continue to function!

Wind Turbines

Before jumping to conclusions you must realize that there are some mechanics in place. First of all Wind Turbines generate MW based on their placement. Secondly they create a lot of noise pollution. Therefore it is probably a bad idea to spam the entire map with Turbines.

Moving this Wind Turbine will increase the electricity produced from 3 MW to 7 MW!

But what is the point where Wind Turbines no longer make sense? I did some calculations and came to the following conclusion

• A land based Wind Turbine can rival a Coal Power Plant in terms of upkeep at 7 MW
• A water based Advanced Wind Turbine can rival a Coal Power Plant at 3 MW

Recommendation: Only place Wind Turbines must be placed in a dark blue zone.

Hydro Power Plant

The Hydro power plant is a flexible building that can be constructed across any river within your territory. The power output ranges from 0 to 1600 MW depending on the water height difference. It has a fixed upkeep of 3200. Therefore it can be extremely expensive (when it is generating 90 MW) or very cheap. Note that you can actually get an estimate from the in-game tool tip while dragging out this building.

This hydro dam only produces 32 MW at a cost of €3200 per week!

Incineration plant

Incineration plant also produce 12 MW of power. However they should not be relied upon as a source of power. Mainly because their €1440 weekly upkeep means each MW will cost you a whopping €120. Therefore it is 16 times more expensive than the Solar Power Plant. In addition it also pollutes the ground.

This Incineration plant just send out 6 garbage trucks.

Summary

At the start of the game you have to choose between Wind Turbines and Coal Power plants. Always choose Wind Turbines as long as you can plop them for 6 MW or better. Eventually you will be forced to use Coal Power because they provide 40 MW (6 Wind Turbines).

If your map supports it then you can start replacing coal power as soon as you unlock the advanced wind turbines at 2600 citizens. Besides saving upkeep this will also lower pollution. Skip the Oil Power and wait until you unlock the Solar Power plant at 20.000 citizens. If you are going to experiment with the Hydro dam then I strongly recommend to save your game!

Questions?

Got questions or other remarks? Feel free to post in the comments below.